The following newspaper article describes how Stanley Kubrick came across Jocelyn Pook, one of the composers of the soundtrack. Web references to the persons
mentioned (and their work on EWS) can be found at:

The following article is taken from "The Independent" - 19th June 1998

WHEN STANLEY KUBRICK telephoned the composer Jocelyn Pook to talk about the
possibility of her working on the soundtrack to his new film, Pook was taking
another call at the time. Alerted to the new caller by her call-waiting service,
Pook quickly asked the stranger to hold and continued her conversation, leaving
the reclusive film director hanging on the telephone for far longer than he
can be used to (one likes to imagine him tapping his fingers on the exquisite
veneer of an antique desk or perhaps playing with a set of model-soldiers in
Napoleonic uniform). Happily, Kubrick did not hang up and they had a brief but
pleasant chat.

Later that day a large black limousine arrived at Pook's Islington flat to
collect the cassette she had hurriedly put together as the sample of her wares
that Kubrick had asked for. The next day, the limo appeared again, and this
time Pook herself was whisked off to Pinewood Studios to meet Kubrick face to
face.

Ironically, what alerted the very famous Kubrick to the fairly obscure Pook
in the first place was the theme to a TV commercial for mobile phones: the wonderful
Orange Telecom ad featuring a sample of Kathleen Ferrier singing "Blow the Wind
Southerly".

A version of the theme, "Blow the Wind - Pie Jesu", was included on Pook's
debut album of last year;" Deluge", when it provoked a very silly - yet for
Pook, profoundly damaging - controversy over whether the music should be classified
as "classical" or not. But more of that later. Let's get back to Stan.

"The reason he heard my music was that a choreographer called Yolande Snaith
was working with him on a scene, and she was playing a track from my CD at the
time," says Pook, who tonight performs in a concert of her works at the Islington
Festival. "He picked up on it, felt it was really appropriate for what he was
doing, and then rang me. When the limo took me to Pinewood, it was all very
normal and we had an interesting meeting. He was very musically literate."

The film, Eyes Wide Shut, starring Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman, remains pretty
much a closed book for Pook, as she has yet to see any of it. "I don't know
a lot about it and I'm waiting until there's stuff to see," she says. "Up to
now I've just done sketches, blind, and since the meeting there's just been
phone calls. It's been very loose and I haven't really found out what he wants
yet."

Pook is a self-taught composer who followed her studies in viola at the Guildhall
with three years of touring with the Communards. She then co-founded the Electra
Strings, the all-female ensemble who have played for everyone from Massive Attack
to Meatloaf. The Kubrick experience is also just the latest in a series of film
and television projects that Pook has been involved in. She co-composed the
music for the brilliant film of DV8's Strange Fish, which won the Prix Italia
Award in 1994, and has written scores for John Smith's "Blight" (in the BBC's
Sound On Film series), and Colin Spector's BBC documentary "Following Strangers
Home".

Even the music for "Blow the Wind" was originally conceived as part of a proposal
for a film by Pook, to be called Requiem for a Spiv. "For me, Kathleen Ferrier's
voice represented a special kind of Englishness and a kind of nostalgia, something
I associated with my mother's youth and that whole radio world," she says.

A version of the piece was first released on a compilation CD by "Unknown Public",
an experimental audio-periodical available only by mail-order. "The writer of
the Orange ad, Larry Barker - son of Ronnie - was a subscriber and he contacted
me. Normally you get ads from an agent so this was a real break from out of
the blue, like the Kubrick thing. It was a really beautiful advert and lots
of people wanted to get hold of the music, but it took a long time to get the
album out."

On release in February 1997, the album became the subject of absurd controversy,
when a self-appointed Star Chamber of record industry representatives deemed
it unfit for either the classical or crossover charts, effectively consigning
it to commercial oblivion. Despite which, two of the panel later included the
track on classical compilation albums for their own labels.

'At the time I didn't realise what it meant. I just thought it was a drag and
like, who cares," Pook says. "But the only way the company would promote the
album is through the chart system, and they also rack it in shops according
to category, so the classification is all-important. As it is, you can't find
it anywhere. It's only been released in Iceland and Hong Kong. I don't even
know who's going to put out my next album because Virgin are worried the same
thing might happen again."

Pook continues to write and to perform, both with the Electra Strings and in
the group 3 or 4 Composers, who last year presented the stunning music-theatre
piece Still Ringing. Her rich and evocative music, often accompanied by the
marvellous voice of Melanie Pappenheim (with whom she appears in Islington tonight)
is also staged with a filmic visual flair that makes most "straight" music-theatre
look sadly deficient.

While Pook may not have been deemed suitable for the masonic lodge of the "classical"
tradition, she shows an eye for the details of presentation that even Stanley
Kubrick might commend (if only he could get through).